Design Master Wish List

The current releases are DM Electrical RT 1.1, DM Electrical 8.4, DM HVAC 7.3, and DM Plumbing 4.1. We are not adding new features to these releases.

The next releases will be DM Electrical RT 1.2, DM Electrical 8.5, DM HVAC 7.4, and DM Plumbing 4.2 We are actively working on these release and using this wishlist to guide which features we implement. Some features you see marked as “complete” will not be available until these releases are finished.

How can we improve Design Master?

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The ability to define an egress fixture as the same fixture/block as the normal fixtures, with an option to turn a hatch on/off to differentiate. Similar to in Revit, where you can set an instance parameter and check it to turn fixtures into the egress blocks. The fixture type stays the same, only the visible block changes.

Be able to create a custom table of impedance and XR ratio values for transformers based upon the kVA. Currently the default values are fixed. If you always use different values, you have to manually change them every time.

Some breakers for the European market have these settings in lue of GFPU and GFD:

Earth-leakage pickup
Earth-leakage trip delay

2) These results could be presented on the drawings by:

a. A settings table/schedule listing the circuit and the characteristics listed above.

b. A modified panel schedule header incorporating the items above when the main has an ETU.

c. A modified switchboard schedule listing the above characteristics as columns on each feeder and the header section modified to incorporate the ETU attributes on the main.

3) DM would probably need to create a new SubType 4 for ETUs in the panel and circuit tables. tblCircuit would need to have fields added for the characteristics above.

4) To enter the settings there would need to be a user selection on:

a. The panel definition screen - for panels where the main is adjustable.

b. The switchboard definition screen - for switchboards where the main is adjustable.

c. On the circuiting screen - for switchboard feeders with ETUs.
All three of these would call the same screen to enter and store the characteristics above.

5) Some additional rules:

a. Default wire selection should remain as it is now “Size Automatically. If a user wants to change the wire ampacity to match a LTPU setting they should have to manually add a wire size for that amperage and change the wire selection.

b. ETUs are usually not available in frame sizes smaller than 250A.

c. It would be helpful to capture the basis-of-design for each ETU, by that I mean the manufacturer and breaker catalog number/description used.

* Some manufacturers allow the selection of plug sizes different from the trip and frame setting. For example GE offers a 1175 amp plug for its 1200AF with a 1200AT as an alternate means to meet NEC 240.87 (energy reducing active arc flash mitigation).

For RV Parks and Marinas, be able to model the pedestals or shore power receptacles as equipment connections, and use the feeder calculations on the branch circuits for breaker sizing and voltage drop purposes.

Right now, one has to edit all the blocks of a panel schedule in order to simply change the font. There should be a way to set the preferred font for all these schedules. If there is a way, I don't know about it. When I first set up DM 10 years or so ago, I do not remember having to change every block, but it's been so long ago...

DesignMaster currently loops devices using arcs. We'd like an option to change looping from using arcs to use polylines (we differentiate between MC cable and conduits with arcs and polylines, respectively). Ideally these polylines would offset themselves similar to how feeder polylines are offset during one-line generation.

We'd like the option to include customizable tick marks in addition to the ones already implemented above. For example, we include tick marks for low voltage cabling used to dim luminaries on our drawings.

I imagine the customization being performed through Design Master Electrical Options under the "Tick Mark Blocks" section. There'd be a "Customized tick mark 1 name" option and another option called "Customized tick mark 1 block". These customized tick marks would then show up in the Insert tick marks dialogue window.

DesignMaster currently supports the following tick marks during an "Insert tick mark" operation:

We'd like the option to include customizable tick marks in addition to the ones already implemented above. For example, we include tick marks for low voltage cabling used to dim luminaries on our drawings.

I imagine the customization being performed through Design Master Electrical Options under the "Tick Mark Blocks" section. There'd be a "Customized tick mark 1 name" option and another option called "Customized tick mark 1 block". These customized…